46"<i JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



Furthermore, I believe that the individual States are just as able as 

 is the Federal Government to put into effect the program of forestry. 

 The people must be convinced that the program is right, and there is no 

 danger that if will not be carried out. It means education and propa- 

 ganda work so that the forestry program is understood and that the 

 people are convinced that it is right. It makes very little difference, 

 after it is done, whether the program is actually carried out by the 

 Federal Government or by the States. 



The inequalities which will arise in the programs of the different 

 States have been held up as a reason why the individual States are in- 

 capable of carrying cut a program of forestry. It has been said, for 

 example, that Montana could not insist upon the piling and burning of 

 brush if Idaho did not do likewise, because that would make an extra 

 cost to the Montana lumbermen which would not be assumed by the 

 Idaho lumbermen. I think this is largely a bugaboo and it really needs 

 to scare no one. There are now very much larger differences in the 

 cost of producing lumber in the various sections of the Northwest than 

 could be created by tl:e requirements of any reasonable program of 

 forestry. There is a considerable difference in the cost of logging on 

 the West Coast and in the Inland Empire, and in the Eastern Oregon 

 country as compared with the North Idaho region. Even in the Spo- 

 kane territory there is now as much as $2 to $3 per thousand actual 

 difference in the manufacturing cost of lumber between different mills. 

 There is, therefore, already a vast difference in the cost of producing 

 lumber between different regions and between different operators, even 

 in the same territory. 



The question for the people in the individual States to decide is 

 whether or not the continuance of the forest industry is sufficient to 

 justify them in putting into effect some restrictions which may possibly 

 interfere with the continuance in business at the present time of a few 

 individual operators. If the people of Idaho, for example, think 

 enough of the lumber business to want it to continue, it seems to me 

 they would not fail to make reasonable requirements of the present 

 operators, in order that that business might be continued, irrespectiv* 

 of what attitude the State of Washington or the State of Montana 

 might take, and even if Idaho lost 25 per cent of its present business 

 as a result of that action, the State would, in the long run, still be far 

 ahead. 



